juding seminar

sunday 1st november ar baginton village hall

£25 per person including lunch!

includes breed standard and hands on, assessment

who has been to one of these?

i have spoken to pat about going along to learn more she says i can but normally it is only judges, (hence the name!)

but have you been and do you think as a begunner to st bernards it would be worth going?

cheri

I've been to this a few years ago, glad to say i passed LOL

It is really for people that are looking to judge our breed. So need to be familiar with the breed standard, show etiquette, KC Rules & regs etc. Its quite intense. I didnt go until i had been showing for some time, & understood everything. There is an exam at the end on rules & regs & the breed standard. The hands on is exactly that, you have to assess each dog & 'place' it as you would if you were judging a show & then critique each dog.

So I spose saying "I placed that 1st cos it's full mantle & very dark" would make you look like an ijit then?? lol!!!!

PMSL!!! Dont laugh, but i went to a JDP (Judges Development Programme) & took Bella a few years ago, & one 'judge' said that she put her 1st because she has a full white collar!!

ok so ill pass if i put a dog 1st as long as it has four feet and drools?????

got it now !!!!

cheri

LOL, thats it ... well in the case of that particular lady, she didnt pass, the JDP is run by the KC & is a bit more strict

You could place them in order of cute faces

that would take far longer than the "proper" way id be there all day! cooing and deciding whos cuter

cheri

I went to a KC seminar at Stoneleigh last year, but it was not breed specific, but still very interesting and we did the "hands on" assessment thing on 3 different breeds. We had a very intersting speaker who works for KC as well as judges etc. (can't remember her name though!). I would recommend these types of events to anyone interested in judging in the future or even just a keen dog show person/handler as they are very informative and from a showing point of view you learn a lot about what a judge looks for and what they hope to find when they go over a dog as well as faults such as pacing, crabbing and other things when a dog is on the move (least that's whats supposed to happen when a judge is in the ring!).

Give me a shout if anyone is going as I am considering it too.

Ali

OOOOPS! Just noticed this was posted last year so seminar has been and gone! Any more in the pipeline?

Sounds like Christina Chapman - she does many of the KC hands on assessments.


Normally there is one every year & its announced in the dog press by the English St Bernard Club. Spaces are limited though & usually are for people who wish to judge the breed as opposed to just wanting experience as it is based around judging St Bernards & the breed standard.

i wanted to go to a few of these

but a group of people in the breed said i wasnt ready yet! dont know how they will be able to tell when i am ready though!!!

cheri

I dug out my certificate from the seminar we went to in October last year and the lady was called Dr Ruth Barbour (KC accredited trainer). We chatted to her afterwards and she was delighted that we had attended, not because we had thought about becoming a judge, but because it gave us so much background knowledge as breeder, handlers and exhibitors and also showed that we took a genuine interest in our breeds (my other 2 mates have rotties, corgis and border terriers, border collies). Dr Barbour also suggested to everyone that they should attend other similar seminars conducted by other trainers as they often have extra bits to add and it's always good to get other people's perspectives and also go along to a breed speciifc seminar for maximum effect - she felt it was irrelevant whether people went onto judge or not and adopted the attitude of "you can never have too much information" and I couldn't agree more!

As for the opinion that you're "not ready", I would always say that only you can make that decision and I would never knock anyone coming into a new field (whether it's dog showing or something else) for showing an interest and enthusiasm, quite the opposite, new people should be actively encouraged to learn more and progress further if that's what they want to do (I've been a teacher, lecturer and trainer for more years than I care to remember and there is no substitute for learning of any kind). Anyway, as far as I'm aware, there isn't an entrance test or 'seminar Police' for going along to these type of events so, as the saying goes, 'you pays your money and takes your choice!'

When I first started dog showing a few years ago (with Neapolitan Mastiffs then) I was very surprised that some of the other exhibitors had a very short-sighted attitude and were not willing to help newcomers - the obvious end result of this approach is that the same people carry on showing, breeding and judging until they all die out! There would be no development of the breed or breed standard and the gene pool would turn into a very small puddle - that can't be good. Every breed needs 'new blood' to come in for its own survival, it's logical, it's common sense!

couldnt agree more

that was a long time ago now - i wonder if im ready now

cheri

I agree with some of the points too ..however ... the Seminar that the English club organise IS aimed at people that want to judge the breed, not merely to gain knowledge as such.

Although there is a brief talk on the standard, the seminar is organised like a normal show with dogs for the 'judges' to 'go over' & move. They are also assessed by a panel of CC awarding judges whilst they are doing this. They then have to write a critique on each dog, as well as an 'exam'. The assessment of the dogs by the 'judges' is no different than if you were doing i for 'real' at a show, you have the same time limits etc to go over, move & make notes on your placed dogs. You also have to go a bit further in your critique & give reasons why you placed one dog over the other & so on.

For this seminar, i do think you 'need to be ready' because you need breed knowledge behind you to understand & go forward. I waited 4 years to do mine. I wanted to understand the breed, get my experience in showing & understanding movement, & points on the dogs etc, so in this cas i do think you have to have some knowledge & 'Be Ready' prior to taking it, & as i said before it is aimed really at people wanting to judge.

There are other seminars that are organised by the KC which i agree people should go to regardless of breed.